Universal’s release of Blumhouse, Miramax and Trancas’ Halloween Ends saw a Thursday night of $5.4M from 3,200 theaters. Showtimes began at 5PM. That figure is +11% from last year’s Halloween Kills‘ previews which were $4.85M.
The third Halloween movie from David Gordon Green in a subset trilogy within the franchise is set to make around $55M this weekend at 3,901 theaters. Halloween Ends cost $30M before P&A. The pic wasn’t exclusive to theaters for one night before also hitting streaming service Peacock on the paid subscriber tier; the pic became available at 8 pm ET, Deadline has just learned. Again, it’s not that Universal doesn’t have any faith in theatrical, Peacock at 15M paid subscribers needs more subscribers. Similar to Halloween Kills, which Uni also pulled this theatrical day-and-date on, the studio has bought out the creative players backends, making them whole as though the movie was a tentpole hit given the pivot to Peacock.
Green’s first Halloween movie back in 2018 which brought back an older and wiser Laurie Strode played by Jamie Lee Curtis is the best grossing of the trio with $7.7M in Thursday night previews, a $33M opening Friday and $76.2M first weekend, which was exclusively theatrical. That movie was also the fourth best opening of the month of October, and more amazingly electrified what was typically a dead zone for films in the latter part of the month.
Last year, Uni went theatrical day and date on Halloween Kills out of caution for moviegoers during the pandemic, and also to spike Peacock subs. The pic posted the best opening for a horror film during the pandemic, and the second best for a theatrical day and date title (after Black Widow‘s $80M) with $49.4M after a $4.85M Thursday previews, which repped 21% of the pic’s $22.8M first Friday.
Critics largely liked Green’s 2018 Halloween at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences giving it a B+. However, film reviewers have turned their backs on the sequels giving Halloweens Kills and Halloween Ends respectively a 39% and 47% Rotten grades. Auds gave Halloween Kills a B- CinemaScore (average grades for a genre movie are between a B and a C+).
Opening limited this weekend is United Artists Releasing/Eon’s Chinonye Chukwu directed drama Till at 16 locations in ten markets. The movie about Emmett Till’s mother who vows to expose the racism behind his lynching, stands at 100% off 43 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes in the wake of its New York Film Festival world premiere. Till will expand to additional markets and theaters in coming weeks.
Among those films in regular release, Paramount’s horror pic Smile grossed an estimated $1.5M yesterday, -8% from Wednesday at 3,659 putting its two week running total at $58.6M after a $26.4M second week. The movie is expected to ease 55% in its third go-round.
Sony’s family animated/live-action title Lyle, Lyle Crocodile ends its first week with $15.4M at 4,350 theaters. Thursday was an estimated $700K, +16% from Wednesday.
New Regency/20th Century Studios/Disney’s David O. Russell period comedy, Amsterdam, which is set to lose as much as $100M, ended its first week with $9M at 3,005 theaters. Thursday was around $440K, -15% from Wednesday.
TriStar’s The Woman King booked at 3,342 ends its fourth week with $7.2M, a running total of $56M after a $420K Thursday, +10% from Wednesday at 3,342.
New Line’s Don’t Worry Darling saw a third week of $5.2M at 3,324, a $40.2M running total after a $365K Thursday, -2% from Wednesday.